Target Audience: ‘Arrow’ Premiere Fails To Deliver The Ratings The CW Hoped For

Ok, let’s start with the facts. The ‘Arrow’ mid-season premiere was this week, and things did not go well for the Emerald Archer. The show scored only a 0.6 in the 18-49 age demographic and only got 1.68 million viewers, which of course does not count viewers watching On-Demand on on-line after the fact, which might change things somewhat once those numbers come in. Still, the fact is that ‘Arrow’ did worse this premiere week than ‘Legends of Tomorrow,’ and that’s a pretty low-bar, especially considering how poorly received ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ has been among critics and fans, and how ‘Arrow’ was once the darling superhero show of the CW, and was the show that actually spawned all of these other superhero shows.

My opinion on the matter? ‘Arrow’ is having a pretty great 5th Season, so the content is there, the problem is with the network and their advertising. The show concluded 2016 with an amazing cliffhanger of Laurel Lance suddenly appearing alive and well in the Arrow Cave, a shocking twist that should have left us on the edge of our seats until the premiere this week. And yet, within a WEEK, the CW had released a promo for the ‘Arrow’ Winter premiere revealing that it was not really Laurel Lance but actually the Black Siren, confirming that fact by showing her using her siren call on Team Arrow.

WHAT THE F#%$!?

I pointed it out when it happened, and I’ll say it again here, let us experience the show!!! Going into the premiere there was no excitement because it was already ruined by that promo, we already knew it was not Laurel, so there was no reason to make sure we did not miss ‘Arrow’ this week. And I know, that is not the only reason the Winter Premiere delivered the numbers it did, as all the CW Superhero shows were down a little bit, but I honestly believe that the CW does a very poor job of promoting its shows, and I would not be surprised if a lot of viewers just simply were unaware that ‘Supergirl,’ ‘The Flash,’ Legends of Tomorrow,’ and ‘Arrow’ premiered this week.

The good news is that all of these shows have already been renewed for another season, so even if ratings drop even more, they are not going anywhere. But I sincerely hope the CW figures out how to properly handle these properties and how to promote them, or else next year might be the beginning of the end for the golden line-up of DC shows that we have come to love to watch on their network. Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!

Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.

Nicholas Graff

A Southern California native (which seems to be a rarity as everyone seems to migrate here from outside the state, and everyone else born here ends up leaving for less crowded spaces), but for Nick, he loves it here. Nick has been writing since he was a teenager, self-published his first book trilogy, 'The Legacy of the Roras' back in 2011, and in 2014 published the inaugural issue of his first comic book, 'The Shadow of Aquaterra.' While not working on my own projects, he is working as a technical film editor at a major television network in their digital media division and recently began writing news and recap articles for ScienceFiction.com, a position which he has found extremely rewarding.